Anthony Helps Knicks Get It Done

NEW YORK — It was what the New York Knicks hadn't done in the first half Sunday that left them feeling the outcome of Game 7 in this NBA Eastern Conference semifinal was a done deal.

For the first time in the seven-game series, the Knicks led after the opening quarter, an opening quarter in which foul-plagued Patrick Ewing played just three minutes and took no shots.

For the first time in the seven-game series, the Knicks led at the half, a half in which Ewing had no points and John Starks one. Ewing and Starks had been averaging a combined 39 points per game.

"When your top two scorers aren't shooting well and you're still in the lead, it's a great feeling," said Anthony Mason.

"I knew it was going to come," Ewing said.

It did, at least for Ewing, who hit 13 points in the third quarter and finished with 18, plus 17 rebounds and six assists.

When it came down to it, though, the man who catalyzed the Knicks' 87-77 victory was none of their usual big-play suspects, but a man whose play had been suspect every time he needed to come up big.

Knicks point guard Greg Anthony had been asked to carry a big load when Derek Harper was suspended for two games after brawling with the Bulls' Jo Jo English in Game 3. Anthony dropped it-several times.

He came into Sunday's finale trying to forget going from horrible in Game 4 (2 of 13 shooting, four turnovers) to merely awful (1 of 3, four turnovers) in Game 6, when he was mercifully limited to 15 minutes playing time. The Knicks lost both.

And he wasn't much better in five minutes on the court in the first half of Game 7.

"One of the things you learn about this league, in the playoffs especially, is you can't dwell on the negative," Anthony said.

"You're ticked for a half-hour after the game and then you try to get ready mentally to come back for the next game. This was the biggest game in the history of the franchise as far as this group of players is concerned."

Anthony, a third-year pro from Nevada-Las Vegas, wiped the slate clean in just 78 seconds at the end of the third quarter.

"It was one of the great moments I've had, especially for the magnitude of what it meant, to beat the three-time world champs," Anthony said.

In an instant after he came back into the game, with the Bulls leading 63-62, Anthony blocked a B.J. Armstrong shot. The next Bulls' trip down the floor, Anthony hammered Armstrong, kneeing the Bulls' guard in the head. That brought two foul shots but Armstrong, the team's best foul shooter, missed both.

"I guess I was dizzy or something," Armstrong said, flippantly, when asked about the knee to the head.

The kick in the Bulls' guts came a few seconds later. With time running out on the shot clock and the quarter, Anthony hit a fallaway three-point shot that left him tangled with Bulls' coach Phil Jackson. Anthony pushed Jackson away.

"I didn't know who it was," Anthony said. "I just tried to get him off me."

The three-pointer gave the Knicks a 67-63 lead at the end of the quarter. It sent the crowd into an uproar that did not subside for the final 12 minutes of a playoff series victory over the Bulls the Knicks had coveted for three seasons.

The Knicks go on to meet Indiana in the conference finals Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. They were to practice at noon Monday. No rest for the wicked.

"This has to be thought of as the beginning for us," said Knicks coach Pat Riley. "We had to beat the world champions.

"If the players felt good today about winning, they don't know what they're gonna feel if they win it all."

Ewing did not become a factor offensively until the third period, when the Bulls' Bill Cartwright quickly picked up three fouls.

It got so good for Ewing that he beat the shot clock with a banked three-point shot to give the Knicks an 80-70 lead with six minutes left. The Bulls were dead.

"They showed they were a tremendous team, even if they didn't have Michael (Jordan)," Ewing said.